This year’s version of the Rangers is a bit of a conundrum. Generally speaking, when several key players go down with significant injuries, a team suffers. The Rangers have been the polar opposite this year. When the Rangers had injuries, they thrived. Throughout this season, the Rangers have without Alex Frolov, Marian Gaborik, Chris Drury, Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, Erik Christensen, Michal Rozsival, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Vinny Prospal for extended periods. That’s a lot of key players for a team that wasn’t even supposed to impress this season.

However, the Rangers prevailed. Callahan, Dubinsky, and Brian Boyle carried the team while they were without their two leading scorers from last season. When Cally and Dubi, the defense and a myriad of CT Whale call ups carried the load. When Rozsival went down with his injury, it was Michael Sauer who stepped up his game, making the injured Rozsival expendable. The banishment of Rozsival to Phoenix brought in Wojtek Wolski, who has helped solidify the Rangers depth at forward while dealing with more injuries than Rick DiPietro has experienced.

But yet, the Rangers are in the playoffs. Role players stepped up, players like Brandon Prust who have no business scoring 10 goals, let alone five of them shorthanded. Players like Sauer, who was supposed to be too slow for the John Tortorella system. The Rangers identified the core of their team throughout this process, and this core has been a point of optimism for Ranger fans who have seen nothing except expensive free agents since 1997.

Injuries work in mysterious ways. Wolski, McDonagh, and Zuccarello probably wouldn’t be sniffing time in the NHL if not for these injuries that have kept several key Rangers out of the lineup. If not for a logjam at forward, the Rangers would have Kris Newbury, who played very well in his bottom-line minutes, serving as a 13th forward. This is the same Newbury that was acquired at the trade deadline last year for Jordan Owens, a deal in which we all laughed at. In addition to Newbury, players like Dale Weise have shown they can skate at the NHL level. It’s amazing what a few injuries can do for an organization. At the start of the season, all the questions were about the depth at forward. Now depth at forward is the biggest strength for the Rangers, who have more depth waiting in Connecticut, and more talent en route from the NCAA and CHL. Without injuries this year, most of these players are afterthoughts. Without injuries this year, the Rangers may have been afterthoughts.

Share: 

More About: